May abundance

The cherry blossom has its brief days of glory and then shatters in a confetti of petals on the ground. Thankfully that isn't the end of nature's treats because, hot on its heels, comes the clematis. One fine specimen scrambles over a wall right in the middle of Saltaire's residential streets. It brings pleasure each time I see it.

Meanwhile the woods are still frothily full of wild garlic, its delicate blooms looking so much like lace tossed carelessly on the ground. It smells oniony and I rather prefer the fragrance of bluebells, which are in flower at much the same time. Occasionally the two intermingle prettily but more often there'll be swathes of white and swathes of blue in adjacent but separate drifts. Those below are both in Northcliffe Woods, bordering the path up the wooded ravine in the south of the park.

On top of the world

I usually feel driven to get out for some brisk walks at this time of year, not so much because I've overindulged at Christmas (I don't tend to) but rather as an antidote to all the sitting around and the sense that I no longer know what day it is. Add in a lovely blue sky and the need to get out is overwhelming. If I really want exercise, climbing the hills either side of the Aire valley is just the ticket.

I took these photos from the high point in Northcliffe Park. (You can go higher still if you want to, but after this point you have to follow the road so it's not such a nice walk.) The photo above is looking north, across Saltaire to Baildon and Hope Hill. The chimney sticking up at the bottom right is the top of Salts Mill's big stack, which is near the start point of my walk. You can see how deep it sits in the valley. From there it's a steady but inexorable climb uphill that took me about 40 minutes. Never mind, it's downhill all the way going back!

A slight turn to the left at this viewpoint affords a vista up the Aire valley. That's the town of Bingley in the valley bottom (below). There is one block of 'the three flats of Bingley' still standing (see my post of yesterday), about one third in from the right, looking like a white box as the sun catches its side. The dark hill on the left is the Bingley St Ives estate, where I often walk too.

I tried a pano shot with my phone. It does slightly weird things to the perspective, elongating the foreground, but it does show the sweep of the view from Northcliffe's top meadow - and my own shadow! 

Rae Gala

For once, it didn't rain on the day of the annual Rae Gala and I wasn't doing anything else, so I managed to get along and enjoy the atmosphere. It is organised by the Friends of Northcliffe Park, to celebrate the wonderful gift of the park to the people of Shipley, by the landowner Sir Norman Rae in the 1920s. It's good, wholesome, family fun, with many local organisations providing stalls and activities.

Music was provided by the Hall Royd Brass Band:

A group of ladies known as Northwind demonstrated tribal bellydance (below), which looked rather fun and was very colourful, and a local group demonstrated T'ai Chi.

Activities for the children included making (and bursting) huge soap bubbles:

and various (good, old-fashioned) races like the sack race:

For the even more energetic, you could make yourself a fruit smoothie by pedalling a static bike:

For the less energetic visitors, rides were provided by Bradford Model Engineering Society on the two miniature railways they operate in Northcliffe Woods, which also usually run on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer.

All that, plus ferret racing, face painting, ice cream and various food stalls, made for a very good afternoon out. At a small local event, there is always the bonus that you bump into lots of people that you know, so there is time for chatting and catching up on news. Shipley rocks!

The good news is that Northcliffe Park (which is a huge area of woodland, meadow, sports fields, allotments and a children's playground) is no longer on the list as a potential crematorium site for the locality. That means that the people of Shipley can continue to enjoy the park as 'an open space for recreation and benefit of the public, forever' as was intended in the original bequest. Now, that is worth celebrating.

Over my dead body

My habitual local walks are mostly in the valley bottom along the canal and river, or on the north side up towards Baildon Moor. There are two main roads between me and the south side of the valley. Once those are negotiated, however, there are some equally pleasant walks to be had. Some of the area is known as Northcliffe Park: land that was gifted in 1920 by Henry Norman Rae MP to be used as a public park 'in perpetuity' by the people of Shipley. It has gardens, allotments, a plateau of open grassland and a steep-sided wooded valley - varied terrain that makes it rewarding to explore.

My favourite bits are the long tree-lined walk (above) and the path down into and through the woods. That end of the park adjoins a golf course. Golfers cross the ravine on the metal bridge in the picture below.

The news that Northcliffe Park is on a list of potential sites for a new crematorium has caused considerable consternation locally. There have been petitions, demonstrations and many people being very vocal, saying that the park was specifically gifted for recreation and a crematorium would breach that pledge.
"A new crematorium? ... Over my dead body!"

Ring-necked parakeet

I'd been told that there were ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in our local Northcliffe Park. I'd heard them calling (squawking!) but never seen them until I spotted a pair in a small tree. The one in front is the female, without a neck ring, and the male is behind, though he never showed himself so that I could get a good picture. Initially they are quite thrilling to see, very exotic birds compared to most of our native species. Then you come to realise that they are a pest, on a par with grey squirrels and Japanese knotweed: big, noisy and outsmarting our native species when it comes to food and nest sites, whilst breeding prolifically. No-one knows how or when they started to spread in the wild in this country. It's likely they began from captive birds that escaped or were freed. At first they were confined to the south-east and London area but populations have spread dramatically since the 1970s.

... and again

Same tree, a black and white experiment this time.

That tree again

Possibly one of my favourite trees in the whole world... It's such a graceful shape. The only pity is that taking enough steps back to get the top branches in the photo is impossible (at least with the only camera lens I have). One encounters the twin hazards of a tangle of overhanging branches from the trees on the opposite side of the path - and a sharp drop in the ground level.

Northcliffe Park Meadow

Such mild weather just before Christmas. Walking in Northcliffe Park in the midday sunshine, it felt like an early spring day apart from the very long shadows, the bare trees and the mud. It was saturated underfoot even then and that is part of why the Christmas night rainfall had such a devastating effect. The keen-eyed may be able to see the tip of Salts Mill chimney, almost central in the photo. The park meadow is allowed to grow wild and is only mown a couple of times a year to encourage wildflowers and insects.

Lambs' tails

Catkins, like fat little lambs' tails, a welcome sign that Spring will come.

Northcliffe's long walk

Another photo taken in Shipley's Northcliffe park. There was still a covering of snow in the shady spots but there were signs of spring - a few catkins and some bulbs beginning to burst their green shoots out of the soil. I love the tree with the twisted trunk. I think it's a hawthorn, with a wonderfully gnarled quality to it.

The little crooked house

Of the two children's playgrounds in Northcliffe Park, this seems the more imaginative, with plenty of things for climbing up, over, down, inside and through. I rather like the 'little crooked house'. I must remember to bring my granddaughters here sometime. I think they'd like it and it would feed imaginative play as well as giving them a physical workout. It's quite high up so there is a lovely view across the valley too, looking over to the area known as Bolton Woods.

The soft shades of winter

A pleasing harmony of soft colours and shapes - trees and flower beds at the entrance to Shipley's Northcliffe park.

A pineapple welcome

Rather lovely ornate iron gates and carved finials like pineapples adorn the entrance to Shipley's Northcliffe Park. Pineapples are apparently a symbol of hospitality and that is why they are often found on gateposts.

Hoo-Rae

I had a delightful walk on a crisp, cold but reasonably sunny day in nearby Northcliffe park in Shipley.

The park was gifted to the town by a local businessman and MP, Sir H Norman Rae in the 1920s. He bought the land at auction, from the Fifth Earl of Rosse. It consisted of fields and woods around a deep ravine formed by melting ice at the end of the last Ice Age, further eroded by open cast mining for coal in the early 1800s.

Sir Norman Rae had the foresight and generosity to offer it 'as an open space for recreation and benefit of the public, forever.' Nowadays it is a nice mix of a conventional park with a few formal flower beds, children's playgrounds, allotments, sporting facilities - tennis, bowls and football and a large area of natural woodland and meadows, now cultivated as wildflower havens.

It makes a delightful circular walk of an hour or so from my home. If only Sir Norman Rae could have known how his gift blesses me, nearly 100 years after his bequest.

Root and branch

Out walking in Northcliffe park, I happened to notice how the shadow of another tree wrapped itself around this one, almost looking like its roots. A rather nice effect, I thought.

Field of gold

Another buttercup meadow, part of Northcliffe Park. The haze of gold is as pretty in its own way as the haze of blue that bluebells create, but buttercups don't seem to enjoy the same cachet.

Do you like butter?

One of the flowers that I remember liking best as a child was the buttercup. Bright yellow and shiny, we used to hold them under our friends' chins and say 'Do you like butter?'  If there was a patch of reflected yellow, the answer was deemed to be 'yes'!

They look so pretty against a blue and white sky. I am delighted that there are fields full of them locally, now that some of Northcliffe Park is managed as wild grassland and wildflower meadow. Delightful.

Yellow brick road... oh, OK, grey tarmac then...

Sometimes I start to feel a little confined, hemmed in on the floor of the Aire valley where I live, work and conduct much of my life.  Luckily, it doesn't take long to escape; a brisk up-hill walk on either side of the valley soon sees you crest a ridge and suddenly there's a marvellous view and a great feeling of space and light.  The north side of the valley takes you up on to Shipley Glen and Baildon Moor, a large area of which still feels satisfyingly 'wild' and natural (even though it has been shaped by man's activities for centuries).  The south side, rather more built up, nevertheless has a wonderful area of open parkland, thanks to a benefactor, Sir Norman Rae, who gifted the land to Shipley Council in 1920 for the benefit of the community.  I always enjoy walking through this avenue of trees.  Even though I know exactly where it goes, I still get a childish feeling of adventure, following a path that 'disappears' into the distance.

Northcliffe Park

I saw these glorious yellow crocuses in Northcliffe Park, Shipley the other day. There aren't many yet, but in the sunshine they looked so cheerful - a real promise of joy and new things.

Northcliffe Park exists due to the foresight and generosity of a local man, Henry Norman Rae MP. During the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, there were many small open-cast coal mines in the area, meeting the demand for coal to produce steam-power for the mills and factories. When the fifth Earl of Rosse put up much of his land around Shipley for auction, Mr Rae (later Sir H Norman Rae) bought Lots 98 & 99 and, in 1920, generously gifted them to Shipley Urban District Council to be used as a public park and playing fields in perpetuity. The area is still managed by the local Council. It comprises a small area of formal gardens, playing fields, a bowling green and tennis courts, a children's playground, allotments - some of which are a horticultural project for people with learning difficulties - and a large area of (mainly oak) woodland along the valley of a small beck (stream).

The name Northcliffe was originally North Clough - a clough is a steep-sided ravine, and there are many in this area. They tend to have survived as natural areas as they were unsuitable for agriculture and development. It's an attractive area and the group called the 'Friends of Northcliffe Park' do a great job of helping manage it, promoting wildlife and encouraging people to use the park.

Snow scene

One more snow scene, just because it's pretty - though the snow has all but disappeared now. I've a feeling we might get some more before the winter is finished (probably in February when I'm due to travel down to Devon!)

The snow transforms the Aire valley into something reminiscent of a Christmas card. If you view this large and look closely, you can just see the tower of Saltaire URC behind the trees on the right. The prominent white building in the centre is Titus Salt School, a brand new upper/secondary school that opened in September 2008, to replace the former Salt Grammar School. (It really is white - that's not just the snow.)